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A black bear has chosen a man-made den for its winter hibernation, a drain tunnel in Wisconsin. The drain tunnel is safe and dry for the bear, so it may stay in there up to four more months. The DNR suggests leaving bears alone while they are hibernating.

The New Mexico House of Representatives voted 66-1 on Sunday to allow 4 bighorn ram permits to be auctioned off. This increases the permits that will be auctioned or raffled off by two. In previous years, an auction has raised $190,000 for a permit. The money earned is used for conservation programs to help the bighorn habitat and to increase the population.

The Imnaha wolf pack from Oregon has received a lot of attention lately. First the Oregon Fish and Game issued an order to kill two of the pack, as they had repeatedly killed domestic animals, but that was blocked by a federal court order. Then some of the wolves crossed into Idaho, OR-7 continued on to California looking for a mate, in his quest he became famous. Now littler mate OR-9 is in the news because he was shot by an Idaho hunter on February 2nd.

John Rocha an 82 year old resident of Windsor, Connecticut, is also a first time offender. He committed the offense on January 4th, when he shot and killed a black bear. The black bear and cub were going through Rocha's neighbor's garbage. Rocha took his .30 caliber rifle and shot the 5-6 year old black bear. The cub was later found, tranquilized and moved. Rocha was charged with illegally killing a black bear, and negligent hunting.

Big Bend National Park located in Texas, is home to over 2 dozen mountain lions. The last time a mountain lion attack was reported was in May 2003, when an elderly mountain lion was starving due to broken canines and it attacked a man. The man was able to fight off the mountain lion that was later found and destroyed. In the park if a mountain lion threatens people and actually comes in contact with them, it is destroyed according to park policy.

SSK Industries created the largest center-fire rifle ever, with a .905 caliber. Only 3 have been made. The lightest weighing in around 50 pounds. The ammunition, 2400 grain bullet, propelled by 240 grains of powder weighing in at half a pound each, and costing $40. The power is comparable to a World War I-era tank round or a 20mm cannon in terms of kinetic energy.

The JDJ was almost categorized as a "destructive device" but got the "sportsman exception" categorization instead. It is a beast. Watch the guys from Knight Rifles as they enjoy their unique experience.

An Idaho Senate Committee has put together a proposal to create an amendment to Idaho's founding documents. The amendment would add hunting, fishing and trapping as a constitutional right, so these rights could not be threatened by some radical groups.

In 1993 a law was passed in Virginia where a person could not buy more than one handgun per month. The Senate and the House have both passed bills of their own, to revoke this antiquated law. In 1993 this law may have seemed like a necessity, but today background checks can be done almost instantaneously and in most cases will prevent sales that should not go through. There is no need to limit a buyer's ability to purchase handguns. Law abiding citizens would be the only ones that are hampered by this law.

Alaska has been receiving an abundance of snow this year, and with that moose are being pushed towards roadways and railroad tracks in search of food. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has decided in efforts to lessen people-moose interactions, to allow the Alaska Moose Federation to set up feeding stations to divert the moose.

Rumors were circulating that the Pennsylvania Game Commission were trapping deer in Lehigh County and removing them from wildlife management unit 5C. Calls and emails were coming in from worried residents. The Pennsylvania Game Commission is trapping deer, but they are not moving them at all, they are tagging them for a study on the deers' movements and populations. The study is tagging deer in Berks, Bucks, Lehigh and Montgomery counties. They are not moving any deer though, so they will be there come hunting season.

About BGH Journal

The BGH Journal is composed by staff on a regular weekly basis to spotlight news, events, products, and BGH updates. If you see a news item locally that we missed and think it would be of interest to BGH readers, please send it in to info@biggamehunt.net

Every year my Pro-Staff and I head to the woods to hunt the old wise Tom. We travel thousands of miles covering numerous states hunting these old guys. Lots of times we end up hunting public lands or private property that have been hunted already. That’s the last thing you want to hear when you just traveled 6 hours that someone else has already hunted the property. We had to come up with a game plan and one real fast.
The first thing we did was ask the farmer were they usually see the birds in...